Why Space Exploration is Necessary
The political debate is swirling around health care. Sometimes it swirls around taxes, or war or crime. It does not tend to revolve around the things that are really important to me: Marijuana and space exploration.
We spend hundreds of billions of dollars on wars, but relatively minor amounts on space exploration, which is beyond a shame. It is downright dangerous. Our very existence as a species depends on space exploration.
First, there is the meteor thing. Meteors enter our atmosphere all the time, but usually they are not that big and they mostly burn up before hitting the ground and, of course, 3 out of 4 land in the ocean. So mostly we don’t notice them at all but we know, from the very few people who have been into space, that they arrive quite frequently. We also have geological evidence of some of the bigger ones.
We know that a meteor strike killed the dinosaurs and there is growing evidence that they have caused other mass extinctions throughout history. It’s only a matter of time until a big enough one to wipe out the human race comes hurtling toward us. We may get a few years notice, just with the telescopes we have now, but we don’t yet have the capacity to destroy or divert one. It would be better if we had that technology by the time one is discovered, rather than having 5 years to try to improvise a solution.
My faith is not that strong that there will be a Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum capable of saving us.
Secondly, there is the alien factor. Now, if there is intelligent life in the universe, it is very, very far away and we are probably not high on their list of priorities. No more so than, say, a rare species of bird or reptile in a remote corner of our own world. So, it is unlikely that they will visit us soon but if they do, and we are not yet a space-faring species, we are in trouble. Chances are, they won’t respect us at all.
If, on the other hand, we meet them halfway, we have a chance of establishing diplomatic relationships on something like equal terms.
I don’t expect it to happen tomorrow, or anytime soon, but better safe than sorry.
Third is the burnout factor. This is perhaps the most inevitable of the three even though it is a long time away, thank goodness. In about 4 billion years our sun is going to burn out and die and everyone still living on Earth will go with it. If we haven’t all left by then, that’s it. It will be curtains for the human race. No more Shakespeare or Jack Kerouac. No more Beethoven and no more Beatles. Everything we ever did, wrote or thought will be gone, meaningless to the rest of the universe.
I find that unacceptable.
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